Intermittent Fasting Improves Memory, Reduces Anxiety and Enhances Neurotransmitter Levels In Zebrafish (Danio Rerio)

Abstract

The zebrafish is an excellent model for social, behavioural and neuroscience studies. The brain controls food intake, energy expenditure, insulin secretion, hepatic glucose production, and glucose fatty acid metabolism in adipose tissue and skeletal muscle. Caloric restriction is thought to be the main reason for disease regulation. The sensory system strengthens by altering the union of neurotrophins and synapses. The experimental groups studied in this research included control, uncontrolled diet-(overfed), 12hrs, 24hrs, 48hrs intermittent fasting, respectively. The study groups were subjected to a T-maze test to examine zebrafish memory and learning changes. The novel tank test (NTT) and light and dark (LDT) tests investigated stress-like behaviour. The levels of dopamine, serotonin, epinephrine, and nor-epinephrine were measured using a spectrofluorimetric method. We found behaviour and enhanced neurotransmitter levels in the groups that were subjected to intermittent fasting than the overfed and control groups which may be due to the hippocampus derived neurotrophic factor that in areas memory power and reduce anxiety from this experiment it is evident that intermittent fasting could bring a positive outcome in memory maintenance by lowering the anxiety and thereby keeping a check in neurotransmitter levels.